Featured Releases
VETIVER - Thing Of The Past
Aficionados of Andy Cabic's caravan may already be hip to many of these covers, having possibly heard the touring band assembled for To Find Me Gone playing from this very songbook during their past few visits to town. The laidback layered harmonies on Elyse Weinberg's "Houses" betray relations to Gary Louris' Vagabonds sessions (on which Cabic guested, and with whom the Vetiver live band has toured and backed up), while Vashti Bunyan sleepily tackles private-press little-known Dia Joyce. Includes Cabic and company's take on Loudon Wainwright III's eminently repeatable "The Swimming Song".
DUFFY - Rockferry
Domestically available after a two-month wait on this side of the pond, much has already been made in the British press of the collaboration between this brassy Welsh belter and producer Bernard Butler, garnering many comparisons to Mark Ronson's success with Amy Winehouse. Even though Duffy has yet to foist any equivalent personal drama on the public, don't hold that against her, as Rockferry's ways may be less in-your-face, but similarly borrowing from classic soul songstresses while putting a contemporary, accessible pop spin on it all.
VA - Good God! Soul Messages From Dimona

VA - Spiritual Jazz: Esoteric, Modal And Deep Jazz From The Underground 1968-77

LYKKE LI - Little Bit EP

THE LAST SHADOW PUPPETS - The Age Of The Understatement

FOUR TET - Ringer

ANIMAL COLLECTIVE - Water Curses
Another slim, murky-green, 4-song stopgap EP like Prospect Hummer from AC's FatCat years, Avey Tare's vocals dominate even more than on last year's Strawberry Jam, singing lead on every tune. The title track zips past in hyperactive waltz time, its sampled cutups and crammed melody the closest thing here to Jam, while the rest of the sequence loosens up and cools down with rhythmic guitar delays on "Street Flash", the quasi-Indo "Cobwebs" luring the listener "out in the night", and ambient gurgles with piano that plays out like one of Tare and Kria Brekkan's side-project cuts for finale "Seal Eyeing".
PORTISHEAD - Third
Presumably named after that yawning 10-year gap between albums, "Silence" commands with rolling toms and a confounding 15-beat figure. Adding hues richer than remembered to tunes otherwise fitting into their sound of old ("Hunter" and "Plastic"'s distorted interruptions; "Small"'s Deep Purple organ wheeze), the band also delves into out-and-out new territory, getting their feet wet with the to-a-tee Silver Apples homage "We Carry On" before back-to-back 180s on uke ballad "Deep Water" and industrial drumpad pattern "Machine Gun", an act at their stark and versatile best on both.
THE ROOTS - Rising Down

ROBYN - S/T
Hearing the blog-ballyhooed Swede acting hard and taking on R&B "realness" on most of these tracks is ridiculous no matter how you slice it, unfortunate since when this woman ditches the Don King skits and Prince pottymouth and goes straight for the pop jugular as on Kleerup collab "With Every Heartbeat", she's bubblegum diva supreme. (Speaking of "Heartbeats", it's all too sadly expectedly cookie-cutter of The Knife to have their turn at producing Robyn, "Who's That Girl", sound just like an imitation of their aforementioned. Since most of this came out in '05 on import, though, this is all old news to fans.)
PONY DA LOOK - Shattered Dimensions
Local synthpop oddballs Pony Da Look (named after an ex-roommate of theirs and ex-employee of ours, if you're so curious) resurface to find themselves now signed (along with Will Currie & The Country French) to longtime friends and supporters Sloan's revived Murderecords imprint. Number-one-fan Chris Murphy goes so far as to call the ladies' songs "witch music", and he's not far off, with the rest of the coven often chiming in to chant along with or against Amy Bowles' high-camp, bug-eyed brogue.
EL PERRO DEL MAR - From The Valley To The Stars
Whereas her self-titled '06 debut long-player came off like a demure girl-group of one, there's a presence lording over Sarah Assbring for her El Perro Del Mar persona's second CD, making the music even airier as the skies widen to bring in the Gothenburg Symphonic Choir and church organ as recurring components; even some massed recorders refresh the congregation on more than one occasion. With all these new vestments sanctifying the sparseness, Assbring's intonements seem both sadder and more hopeful, a sentiment succinctly put in "Into The Sunshine"'s wishes to "go back into the sun."
ELBOW - The Seldom Seen Kid
As unshakeable as Coldplay comparisons continue to be when it comes to Guy Garvey's default croon, Elbow's keen ears in the studio keep them a cut above, toying with touches like opener "Starlings"' startling orchestral hits that jump out of a burbling bed of arpeggiated triplets, or "Grounds For Divorce"'s gospel-blues tinge. Although it hasn't yet been singled out for UK chart action, the group'd be wise to let "Weather To Fly" out in the open, a song light and catchy enough to hang chorusless for as long as it pleases.
BILLY BRAGG - Mr. Love & Justice

TOKYO POLICE CLUB - Elephant Shell
Although Rolling Stone wishes that "all guitar bands were smart enough to rock out this fast", to these ears the Newmarket foursome's first full-length foray best tackles its slower material, tracks like "The Harrowing Adventures Of..." and "Listen To The Math". The former spaciously stretches out in range as well as tempo with glockenspiel, acoustic guitar, stomps and claps set against cello and low baritone backups, while the latter puts mellotron washes over cymbal splashes and snare snaps before the requisite rock-out.
CONSTANTINES - Kensington Heights

M83 - Saturdays=Youth
As two of the 'teenaged' subjects of Saturdays=Youth's booklet photo shoot get introduced in "Kim & Jessie", M83 remodel John Hughes anthem mainstays like Simple Minds and The Psychedelic Furs in sleekly sincere, high-fashion form, while Morgan Kibby's vocals on "Skin Of The Night" and "Up!" stay '80s for full-blown respective Cocteau Twins and Kate Bush nods. Few Loveless-loving groups give those cooing keyboards a try, so it's notable that Anthony Gonzalez puts them in his palette, popping them up in JAMC-simple I-IV form on "Graveyard Girl", and the floor-tom pound of "Highway Of Endless Dreams".
BRIAN JONESTOWN MASSACRE - My Bloody Underground
It's easy to only ogle A. Newcombe's uglified track titles without paying much more mind ("Who F*cking Pissed In My Well?"), but the songs speak for themselves, often in contradictory tongues (ie. the artiste-ic austerity of solo piano piece "We Are The N*ggers Of The World", [apocryphally?] written at 9 years old). The ostrich guitar pecks on "Infinite Wisdom Teeth" and jawharp 'n' Marrakesh drums in, uh, the one about the well are swell, but the BJM's best served dipped into their baked bread and butter with some downer breakbeats and gauzy swirl, as on amorphous heaver "Who Cares Why?".
HERCULES AND LOVE AFFAIR - S/T

